Californians once dreamed that the artificial and somewhat accidental Salton Sea – a massive lake shimmering atop an otherwise dry desert – would mimic Las Vegas in tourist popularity.

It didn’t. Upstart resorts were eventually abandoned; their crumbling remains dot shores otherwise slathered in crunchy bone fragments picked clean by migrant birds. Its northern waters are remarkably and eerily still, desperately awaiting any disturbance that would briefly echo their former significance.

Anyone familiar with my work is likely aware that I enjoy enhancement of contrast and tonality to an unnatural fault — but this shot is barely edited save for its obvious vignette. I doubt that I’ll ever again witness a sunset as literally awesome as what I strove to capture in this photograph.